Ref ID : 4977
Amanda J. Ye and Daniel P. Romero; Phylogenetic relationships amongst tetrahymenine ciliate inferred by a comparison of telomerase RNAs. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 52:2297-2302, 2002
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The phylogenetic relationships between ciliate species in the suborder Tetrahymena, order Hymenostomata, was investigated by comparing their telomerase RNA (TER) sequences. This relatively small RNA is an integral part of telomerase, the ribonucleoprotein enzyme that catalyses the synthesis of telomeric DNA. Despite a relatively rapid rate of primary sequence divergence, conserved functional and structural elements within TERs faciliate the accurate alignment of truly homologous nucleotides. The tetrahymenine phylogeny derived from distance analysis of TER seqences is largely consistent with those based on rRNA and histone sequences.